Health Care Lie: '47 Million Uninsured Americans'

Business and Media Institute: Health Care Lie: '47 Million Uninsured Americans' (HT: Presbyweb)

Michael Moore was wrong about health insurance.

So were President Bush, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), presidential candidates former Sen. John Edwards and Gov. Mike Huckabee and The Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, People magazine and Time magazine, as well as CNN, CBS and ABC.

Each of these people and media outlets incorrectly claimed the number of uninsured to be 40 to 50 million Americans. The actual total is open to debate. But there are millions of people who should be excluded from that tally, including: those who aren’t American citizens, people who can afford their own insurance, and people who already qualify for government coverage but haven’t signed up. ...

Here are some highlights.

Of the 47 million without healthcare (According to the US Census Bureau):

8.4 million = $75,000+ but don't buy insurance
8.3 million = $50,000-75,000 but don't buy insurance
9.5 million = not citizens

That is 26.2 million out of an estimated 47 million.

About 45% of 47 million without insurance will have health insurance within four months. They consist mostly of people between jobs.

According to Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans who do not qualify for current government programs and make less than $50,000 a year between 13.9 million and 8.2 million.

The 8.2 million number is the chronically uninsured who have been uninsured for two or more years. That comes to about 2.7% by my calculation.

Comments

[David]

This is a "talk radio" post: At first glance, it seems as though there is a really good point to be made. But when you think about it some more, the sense of righteous simplicity evaporates.

"Michael Moore was wrong about health insurance" is a great headline. And it may, in fact, be true. But it's unsupported by the article which follows. The fact that there are 8.4 million people who earn $75k a year but don't have health insurance doesn't mean that it's a lie when they are included in count of uninsured people. Obviously, the issue is not "whether" they don't have insurance, but "why" they don't. That question is more complex than talk radio cares to handle.

If you want to understand the issue, you'd actually have to dig deeper, and ask more nuanced questions: Why don't they have health insurance? Is it a truly a choice, or do health insurance companies not want them? What should you do about them if they show up at an ER with a life-threatening condition? How should society prioritize their health concerns relative to those people who do choose to have health insurance? Those questions can't easily be answered without a lot more information and thoughtful debate.

It's the same with the 9.5 million "not citizens": They don't have health insurance, so they have to included in the count of people without health insurance. Obviously, you can make an argument that the US government should not have to pay for their health insurance, but then what do you do when they show up at an emergency room with a bleeding ulcer? Or the pregnant, illegal immigrant mother has a health condition which threatens the life of her unborn child? (BTW: I don't presume to know the answer to those questions, but they deserve to be thoughtfully considered.)

I'm not saying that the government or employers or anyone has to provide health care for these folks. But the situation is a lot more complicated than the headline implies.

Perhaps a more accurate lead would be: "47 million uninsured composed of different groups with different issues, making single solution elusive and perhaps impossible, and raising questions of responsibility, compassion, and size/reach of government".

And maybe that's why I have not been hired to write headlines.

[Michael W. Kruse]

I would suggest that the “47 million uninsured” is the talk radio sound bite. It is a technical truth but a public policy lie. It is being used to suggest that this represents a static population that can’t access healthcare when in fact it is only a fraction of this number in that position. The article comes from a political context but everyone comes from a context. The question is its accuracy. I think it better represents the problem than flashing “47 million uninsured” does.